U.S. Envoy Leaves Syria Over Threats to Safety

By Massoud A. Derhally -
Oct 24, 2011

The U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, left the country after “credible threats against his
safety,” Haynes Mahoney, the American Embassy’s deputy chief of
mission, said today by phone from Damascus.

The threat level was determined based on “incitement in
the government-controlled media,” Mahoney said, adding that
Ford’s return to Syria will depend on “the security assessment
on the ground.”

“We hope that the Syrian regime will end its incitement
campaign against Ambassador Ford,” Mark Toner, a State
Department spokesman, told reporters in Washington today. “This
decision was based solely on the need to ensure his safety, a
matter we take extremely seriously.”

Protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s Assad’s rule
have swept Syria since mid-March, inspired by the uprisings in
Egypt and Tunisia. Assad has blamed the unrest on Islamic
militants and foreign provocateurs, and sent security forces to
crush the protests, leaving more than 4,000 dead according to
human rights groups. He has rejected U.S. and European demands
that he step down.

Ford, who has criticized the crackdown, escaped a violent
mob of government supporters last month while visiting
opposition lawyer Hasan Abdul-Azim at his office in Damascus.
The ambassador said that protesters hurled concrete blocks at
his car and attacked it with iron bars.

Ford arrived in Damascus in January, filling a position
that had been vacant for six years. Former President George W. Bush recalled his envoy to Damascus in February 2005 following
Syria’s alleged involvement in the assassination of former
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

President Barack Obama Obama’s administration said before
the unrest began that engagement with Syria was a key part of
its effort to make peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.